Spring Wings

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

The Megalit company is building the comfort-class residential complex "House on Lvovskoy" in the Krasnogvardeisky district of St. Petersburg, on the western border of Polyustrovsky Park. This park is large enough, 45 hectares, but not old, it was laid out in 1967 with the name "50th anniversary of October" on the site of the former Petrovsky health resort of healing, iron-rich mineral water. The park is planted with lindens, birches, although it does not look like a forest at all, but it is spacious: trees are planted in rows in the grass between the paths. But the park remains a park, and leaving their homes, residents can almost immediately find themselves in nature; not every residential complex can now boast of such capabilities. Lvovskaya Street, which gave the name to the complex, runs from the opposite side, west of the site. The buildings around are micro-district, mainly with nine-storey buildings, which, on the one hand, neutralizes the restrictions, since everything around is already quite high-rise, and on the other hand, it provokes to dilute the grayish tone of the environment with color.

Four houses with a height of 16 floors are placed on a trapezoidal section, taking into account insolation. According to the authors, the location and shape of the volumes are calculated in such a way that “at different times of the year and day, the sun penetrates all the windows,” and there is enough light inside even in winter. That for St. Petersburg, where every ray of sunshine is worth its weight in gold, perhaps, is quite important.

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1/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Bird's-eye view © A. Len Architectural Bureau
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2/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". General plan © Architectural bureau "A. Len"
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3/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Development from the side of Penostrovsky © Architectural bureau "A. Len"
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4/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Sweep along the street Lvovsky © Architectural Bureau "A. Len"
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5/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Sweep along the street Marshal Tukhacheskiy © A. Len Architectural Bureau
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6/6 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Development from the side of the sports complex © Architectural bureau "A. Len"

One long L-shaped building forms a "quarter" corner along the northern border of the territory: its southern walls will receive plenty of sunlight, and at the same time, the building will be able to shield the courtyard from the north wind. Three other buildings - towers in the form of slightly asymmetrical "books", are built along the southeastern border, next to the park, so as to obscure the sun as little as possible in the triangular courtyard, which the authors interpret as "their own garden under the window." The courtyard is designed according to modern standards: no cars, the cycle path is equipped with circular turns and a bicycle parking; with several different playgrounds and a park lattice - one through which the grass grows in the passages for special vehicles. However, as we remember, the houses stand on the border of the park, into which the courtyard flows smoothly: it is assumed that there will be no fence around the houses, in our time this is not accepted, and the three southern buildings are deployed like open blinds not only to let the sun through, but also - so as not to interfere with the merger of the complex with the park and free, like at home, walks.

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1/4 Residential complex "House on Lvovskoy". Playground © A. Len Architectural Bureau
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2/4 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya". Improvement of the inner territory © Architectural bureau "A. Len"
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3/4 Residential complex "House on Lvovskaya" © Architectural bureau "A. Len"
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4/4 Residential complex "House on Lvovskoy" © Architectural bureau "A. Len"

All entrances to residential buildings (except for one in the middle tower) are through, you can enter both from the street and from the courtyard. And barrier-free - they are raised above the pavement by some 30 cm, smoothed by a ramp. The entrances to the premises of the public ground floors, where cafes, shops and a children's center are supposed to be, are planned exclusively from the street and with residential entrances, or, as they say in St. Petersburg, frontal, do not intersect.

There are 422 places for cars in a single-storey underground parking - under each building, and not under the whole spot, as was customary to do 10 years ago. There are 800 apartments, about half of them are provided with parking, although there are still a few additional, rather disabled and guest ground places in the southern and northern ends of the site. But - the authors and the developer separately emphasize this - all parking lots are equipped with lifts. This is not often paid attention to, and the detail is important: surprisingly, there are houses in which there is a parking lot, but there is no elevator: imagine the daily rise from the ground up the stairs with food in hand.

In general, the authors, who are in solidarity with the customer, position their concept as a “new level of comfort”. Which is determined, according to the architects, by thoughtful detailing - in other words, the authors delved into all the little things in order to make life in their complex as comfortable as possible. In addition to those already mentioned: well-thought-out insolation, a courtyard without cars and with shops on the ground floors, the layouts are well thought out. The apartment layout here is unusual by modern standards: in addition to studios and one-room apartments, the line is extended to five-room apartments. There are large families in our time. Even some of the parking spaces are sold as "family" ones, two at a time, however, without a discount for the quantity, but only because of the convenience, say, for the mother and father of the family, to put two of their cars side by side. Apart from apartments, there are apartments in the same complex, which allows to reduce the load on the city infrastructure. Storage rooms are also provided, they are sold, like parking spaces, separately. All apartments are equipped with glazed balconies, the layouts are positioned as optimal, there is really nothing superfluous in them, judging by the line from studios to two-room apartments, and you can see them on the real estate website of the project.

The outer form of the buildings of the complex interprets its main advantage - the proximity to the park, turning the houses into a kind of avant-garde carpet or a picture of rayonism, conveying clear natural associations through the contrast of color and shape. The color is chosen - light green: May, fresh greens. But it is given in dashed accents, like the first leaves hatched from the buds, against the background of two basic colors, white and black, and a smaller part is given to black, as if houses tell us about a short Petersburg summer and a long, white winter. The black parts of the buildings gravitate towards the park as to the "damp earth", while the white ones look towards the city. At the same time, the black ends face south and seem to be "charred" by the sun.

By itself, the reception of a large pixel-line drawing, and the use of light green are not new themes, but in bold contrasting graphics they refresh houses well, enliven and even partially hide their relatively simple, characteristic LCD form, introducing - albeit optically - the theme of a sharp diagonal "Nose". And at the same time leveling both the sharpness of the diagonal border when black and white meet, and, in part, the thickness of the strips of interfloor walls: crushing it with sonorous, thin lines, similar to rays of glare, striving to dissolve houses in the environment.

All corners are rounded, which gives the volumes sculpturality and a certain shade of gloss of modernity, asymmetrical rounding of the loggias emphasize the restrained waviness of the volumes. It is as if the ribbons of the windows surround a small grove, most likely a birch grove, which is indicated by both the interpenetrating neighborhood of white and black, and the openwork grilles of the staircase and elevator blocks (in which, by the way, the brand name "A" from the new logo "A. Linen").

In spring, the houses will be quite organic to the park neighborhood, in winter they will remind their residents and everyone passing by: do not despair, nature will still flourish. However, inside we see the same green color - as Philippe Starck used to say, leaving the house, a person should feel: “I can do anything” - perhaps an energetic color works for the same task - activates internal motivation.